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Headlines : EnvironmentDeadly drought hits south Somalia
Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia are slipping into a vicious cycle of drought, hunger and violence. Something that could further destabilise the whole region. But with the main focus/distraction on the Middle East these days, nobody really seems to take notice… Remember those 100 days in Rwanda, 1994?
[Posted By BurningMonk]Republished from BBC News
WFP says that malnutrition rates among children under five in southern Somalia are as high as 20%.
Local aid agencies and the Somali Red Crescent Society in Gedo region have found that more than 22 small villages and towns are suffering badly.
Food aid is now reaching some of the villages and towns in the region, but local elders say it is not enough.
At least two children, boys aged five and seven, have died of starvation in Fah-fah-dhun village, 80km west of Bardhere district of Gedo region in the past five days according to the village chief, Mr Ali Adam Warabeh.
Migration
The chief told the BBC via HF radio that more two-thirds of people in his village have left in search of pasture and water for their herds and themselves.
“Fah-fah-dhun village had about 1,500 families, but now there are fewer than 500 families remaining,” he said.
“Most of those families have moved to the Hagar and Afmadow towns where there is some grazing land for the herds.”
Abdi Mohamed Abdulle, chief of the village of El-Addeh, told the BBC by radio that the shallow hand-dug water wells of his village and that of El-Gudud village have dried up because of the drought.
“Forget about cattle …
Posted by BurningMonk
update:
(for those who never heard of the country: Djibouti borders to the north of Somalia)
DJIBOUTI: Dire humanitarian situation as drought intensifies
The humanitarian situation in Djibouti has reached a critical level as a result of consecutive years of drought, the acting United Nations humanitarian coordinator in the Horn of Africa country has said.
“We have already noted severe malnutrition in some children and are worried of further deterioration of the children’s nutritional status,” said Aloys Kamuragiye, who is also the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) representative, on Tuesday.
“We are definitely in an emergency situation,” he told IRIN.
...
Women buried in well
“Drought in Somalia is putting hundreds of thousands of people at risk, with some forced to drink their own urine or walk the equivalent of two marathon races to find water, a relief agency said on Thursday.”